Wei Tan
Assistant Professor
(303) 492-0239
WTan@Colorado.EDU
Curriculum Vitae
Education
- Post-Doc, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Bioimaging and Biomolecular & Chemical Engineering, 2003-2005
- Ph.D. University of Illinois at Chicago, Bioengineering, 2002
- M.S. University of Illinois at Chicago, Bioengineering, 2001
- B.S. East China University of Science and Technology, Biochemical Engineering, 1997
Professional Recognition
- Junior Faculty Development Award (University of Colorado), 2006
- Russell & Sigurd Varian Fellowship (American Vacuum Society), 2002
- Provost’s Award (University of Illinois), 2001
- Jiaohua Excellence Award (Jiaohua Chemical Incorporated), 1996
Research Interests
- BioNanomaterials
- Mechanobiology
- Tissue Engineering
- BioMEMS
- Cardiovascular Bioengineering
My research concerns the areas of cell nano-mechanics, cell mechano-transduction, and nano-materials. Currently, there are three active projects in my laboratory:
- Anisotropic strains for cell differentiation
Our research on cell nano-mechanics employs our newly developed anisotropic cell stretching device, which subjects cells to a variety of anisotropic strain environments for high-throughput evaluation of mechanical effects on cell differentiation and evaluation of mechanochemical effects on cell differentiation. Vascular cells and mesenchymal stem cells are used in this study. - Mechanobiology in pulmonary vascular
circulation –pathogenesis study of pulmonary
hypertension
Mechanobiology, or how cells sense and respond to mechanical forces in physiological or pathological conditions, is important for blood vessel health. This work is coupled with expertise in the development of novel fluidic devices that subject cells to shear stresses in simulated physiological and pathological conditions. Current research is exploring the role of dynamic shear stresses on endothelial-smooth muscle signaling and matrix remodeling in the pulmonary circulation, and the potential exploitation of these fundamental mechanisms for evaluating potential diagnostic paradigm and improving therapeutic intervention for pulmonary hypertension, a fatal disease in the children and adults. The majority of studies are focused on establishing the relationship between shear stress associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension and vascular remodeling and stiffening using shear devices developed in our laboratory. - Bio-nano-composites for vascular
grafts and vascular tissue engineering
Collagen is used often in construction of vascular grafts or vascular tissue. However, the strength of a collagen gel is never satisfactory for direct use of implantation. We aim to develop new collagen-synthetic material composites to improve the performance of collagen-based tissues.
Selected Publications
- W. Tan; R. Krishnaraj; T. A. Desai. “Evaluation of nanostructured composite collagen-chitosan matrices for tissue engineering”, Tissue Engineering, 7:2, 203-210, 2001
- W. Tan; T. A. Desai. “Layer-by-layer microfluidics for biomimetic three-dimensional structures”, Biomaterials, 25, 1355-1364, 2004
- W. Tan; A. Sendemir-Urkmez; J.A. Fahrner; R.D. Jamison; D. Leckband; S A. Boppart. “Structural and functional optical Imaging of three-dimensional engineered tissue development”. Tissue Engineering, 10, 1747-1756, 2004
- W. Tan; T. A. Desai. “Microscale multilayer cocultures for biomimetic blood vessels”, Journal of Biomedical Material Research, 72A(2), 146-160, 2005
- S. Sharma*; W. Tan*; T. A. Desai. “Improving the integrity of three-dimensional vascular patterns by poly(ethylene glycol) conjugation". Bioconjugate Chemistry, 16, 18-22, 2005. (* Both authors contribute to the paper equally)
- W. Tan; A. Oldenburg; J. Norman; T. Desai; S. A. Boppart. “Optical coherence tomography of cell dynamics in three-dimensional tissue models”. Optic Express, 14(16): 7159-7171, 2006
- W. Tan; A. Oldenburg; J. Norman; T. Desai; Boppart SA. “Imaging Cellular Responses to Mechanical Stimuli within Three-Dimensional Tissue Constructs" Microscopy Research and Technique. in press, 2006